Two years after combining the global, wide-areanetwork capabilities of MCI Corp. with the local,access and professional services of Verizon,Verizon Federal has settled into its role as a managednetwork services provider to agenciesacross the federal government. The combinedentity continues to build on each company's previoussuccess with major wins in those arenas,such as Networx and Washington InteragencyTelecommunications System (WITS) 3.

Verizon Federal, an organization withinVerizon Business dedicated to serving federalgovernment customers, rounded out that expertisein 2007 with the acquisition of Cybertrust tocreate an enhanced Verizon Business SecuritySolutions practice.

"We manage more securitydevices in the worldthan anyone else, and thatstability is very importantwhen it comes to supportingthe federal government,"said Susan Zeleniak, vicepresident of federal marketsat Verizon Business.

The WITS 3 contract, which has a four-yearterm with four one-year options, is worth asmuch as $1.8 billion. WITS 3 covers local telecomservices and products for federal agencies inWashington and portions of the Marylandand Virginia suburbs. Verizon Businessheld the previous WITS2001 contract.

Verizon Business was one of threeprime contractors awarded the federalgovernment's Networx Universal andNetworx Enterprise contracts, whichauthorized the company to compete forbusiness from individual agencies.

Networx is among the largest federal communicationscontracts in history and representsa significant portion of VerizonFederal's business. The company continuesto aggressively pursue and win contractsunder this vehicle.

"Our past performance was significantin this area," Zeleniak said. "We serve justabout every agency either through networkservices or professional services ?and at a good price."

"Verizon is basically the 800-poundgorilla," said JerryEdgerton, who retiredas president of VerizonFederal and is now chiefexecutive officer atCommand Information, aconsulting firm. "They havethe power of incumbency,and that goes a long way,"Edgerton said. "However,staying power creates adegree of inertia and limitsflexibility to be creative, and this time now is allabout creativity, being first to market and takingadvantage of having everything connectedto the network. That is where their limitationwill be."

Federal agencies account for about half ofVerizon's government business and, togetherwith state and local government work, constitutesabout 20 percent of VerizonCommunications' revenues.

The bundling of services is helping agenciesstay on budget, and newly developed tools toprovide dashboard visibility into network performanceenable agencies to confidently outsourcenetwork management and securitywithout loss of control.

"Security and mobility will be the biggest challenges"for agencies, Zeleniak added. "Security isso important to every agency now, whether foridentity management or to safeguard personalinformation. Everything we do, we approachwith the question, 'What about security?'"

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